Working, travelling, and identity: J.B. Priestley’s English Journey (1934)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The motivation for travel is central to its form and content. This article addresses an under-represented area of travel writing: the travel text that results from a journey undertaken for work purposes. By considering J. B. Priestley’s English Journey as a case-study, it argues that the text’s critical reception, at first disorientated and confused, and later dominated by historical and political readings, has resulted from Priestley’s emphasis on work rather than leisure. In his text Priestley explores the relationship of work and identity, and his own position as writer and traveller is central to this, symbolised in his preoccupation with the figure of the travelling salesman.